User:NehaaNan9/Project1

Project Preference
1) Mobile robot hallway navigation 2)MakerBot PLA material characterization 3)Smart shoe

Problem Statement
Our group will be working on Mobile Robot Project, we are basically trying produce a code to navigate the robot around the hallway on it's own. Since we have a somewhat of a working robot I believe we are starting at Design Phase and continue to fix the program until the robot is working as intended.

Project Plan
We plan to research each of the parts in the Lego Mindstorms and use them accordingly in the programming. If we wanted the robot to move around the hallway we have to measure the hallway and come up with the right measurements to give the robot the right directions. Receive instructions on how to use the Matlab Simulink before we continue programming.

Week 1 Narrative
We first ran the robot while recording the necessary problems we needed to fix. we felt that we wanted:
 * The robot to go in a straight line - it slightly turns left while it moves
 * When come in contact with the wall, it goes along with the wall instead of away from it
 * Needs sensors that comes with a 120 degree angle of vision.
 * I was researching about Matlab to be acquainted with it.

Week 2 Narrative
My task was to learn more about the compass sensor in the Lego Mindstorms where a compass is built in the sensor.

I found that the compass sensor reads from 0 to 359.
 * 0 reads as North
 * 90 reads as East
 * 180 reads as South
 * 270 reads as West
 * 360(0) reads as North

I wondered what if we wanted the robot to go NW, NE, SE, SW. I dicovered that since there are units from 0 to 359
 * 45 reads as NE
 * 135 reads as SE
 * 225 reads as SW
 * 315 reads as NW
 * And it repeats again.

Week 3 Narrative
I wanted to research on how to correctly program the Matlab Simulink for it to work the way we want. This past week we had troubles with LEGO Robot's main interface, the screen wasn't showing the program number but it still was working. Once we changed the interface, we had trouble coding the program using simulink. After we fixed the code, we wanted to see how the robot performed but then we couldn't upload the program. So I wanted to research how the simulink works.I found a PDF page called Using Matlab Simulink. It describes the basic steps to approach a derivative problem with differential equations. There are inputs according to our project: value of motor speed of each wheel to make the robot go in a straight line,ultrasonic sensor and the compass sensor. The in-between code: the length of which the robot should go, the function equation where the robot follows. The output: the motors. We are basically running the whole program on the wheels. But the different components give various directions to the wheels. I also completed the design in the CDIO report CDIO Design

Week 4 Narrative
We tried to change the code of the program according to the compass, but that did not work. Whenever we changed the position of the robot and placed it back in the same place it kept on giving different readings each time. At the we weren't able to figure out what the problem was and we couldn't complete the project. I also completed rest of the Design phase of the CDIO report.